The Word in Focus with Dr Larry Taylor

Thoughts on the Sermon on the Mount

Matthew 5-7

Part 1 of 21

Can you imagine Jesus standing in front of you asking, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I tell you?” (Luke 6:46)

The whole point of being a Christian, a disciple (intern, apprentice, follower) of Jesus is to live out our lives in such a way as to allow Jesus to shine through us. Faith without works is dead. The fruit of the Spirit is love …. We are to act like Jesus. We’re to ask, “What would Jesus do if he were I?” WWJD? – for real this time.

The Sermon on the Mount is a carefully crafted masterpiece. The literary design is a beautiful rhetorical chiasmus – each of the three main sections has three sections, and each of those have three sections. The teaching here is unprecedented and unduplicated. Nothing in the history of religion or philosophy comes close. Even atheists agree it is an ethical masterpiece. 

Matthew chapters 5-7 is a sermon. It has unity and connecting themes. It is not a random assembling of disconnected sayings.

Jesus earthly ministry of 3½ years can be divided into three parts. During the first year, only recorded in the Gospel of John, he was forming the core of the band that would follow him. In years two and three, he focused on the masses, working miracles, and inviting people to join God in making all things new. 

During the last six months of his ministry, beginning with Peter’s great confession (Matthew 16), Jesus’ focus is the cross. He never speaks of his crucifixion without also declaring his resurrection. 

The Kingdom of the Heavens (always plural in the Greek) is synonymous with the phrase “Kingdom of God” in Luke’s gospel. It means the domain of God, that over which God reigns. Wherever God rules, there is the kingdom. Wherever you find people living out the Sermon on the Mount, you find the Kingdom of the Heavens. Wherever you encounter unspoiled nature, you find the Kingdom of the Heavens.

Importantly, the Kingdom of the Heavens is not a place you go when you die. Do not fear, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8), but that’s not what Jesus is talking about. Jesus is inviting his listeners to change their minds and enter a brand-new way of living in this life now – a way that is counterintuitive and seems absurd. 

Jesus’ kingdom is upside down. It is the exact opposite of worldly kingdoms. Not all worldly kingdoms are equally bad, but all are built on violence, control, and coercion. All have foundation mythologies that insist that they were divinely sanctioned. All believe they are extraordinary. All of them began with war, invasion, conquering and/or genocide. All maintain that their founding documents are sacred. All have their sacrosanct symbols. All consider the highest form of sacrifice being to die for the empire. All oppress, marginalize, or even enslave outsiders. 

None of that should surprise us. All the kingdoms of this world are ruled by the satan. (Matthew 4 and Daniel 10 make that clear.) Every empire in history has believed itself to be the exception.

The United States is large, prosperous, industrious, rich in resources, abounding in beauty, and at her best has defended the weak, welcomed the immigrant, and promoted justice, liberty and peace for all. Her best is seen in the abolitionists, civil rights workers, healthcare promoters, nature lovers, and many charities. 

But, like all empires, she has another side. The nation was founded by Europeans who stole land from native people who had lived here for over 15,000 years. The stolen land was worked by enslaved Africans. Racism is deeply imbedded in the culture. The Civil War freed the slaves only to have Jim Crow racism re-enslave them. Women, immigrants and minorities were (and are) demonized. Heroes (like Charles Lindbergh), religious leaders (such as Fr. Charles Coughlin), and business tycoons (like Henry Ford) supported Hitler. The political system produced Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, FDR, JFK, Jimmy Carter, and Barack Obama. It also produced Spiro Agnew, George Wallace, Jim Clark, Randy ‘Duke’ Cunningham, Donald Trump, and Andrew Jackson. The same government that lifted millions out of poverty with the New Deal imprisoned Japanese American citizens in internment camps.

“This is our portion, this is our testament,

This is America, dual-brained creature,

One hand thrusting us out to the stars,

One hand shoving us down in the gutter.”

Jesus’ kingdom is the kingdom of the heavens. It is the kingdom of God. It is not affiliated with any nation, state, or empire. Its citizens come from every ethnicity, tribe, people group, language, and culture on earth. It has no army, no military, no weapons, and no gold stored up in a Fort Knox. Our King rules via cruciform love.